


The Strange Breed

by Coffin Liqueur (HP_Lovecats)



Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse), Resident Evil - All Media Types
Genre: /r/FanFiction Challenge, Character Study, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Family Drama, Game: Resident Evil 7, Gen, Gore, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-06-26 16:35:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 31
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19772164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HP_Lovecats/pseuds/Coffin%20Liqueur
Summary: A collection of Baker clan-centric drabbles for r/FanFiction's July 2019 Daily Prompts.





	1. Ghost's Ghost Story

**Author's Note:**

> July 1st: "Horizon".

Zoe wouldn't dare go far. Not when Eveline'd gripped at the edges of her senses and began to squeeze for her straying too close to unmapped boundaries before.

But she took the boat out, sometimes, by the old house. Paused where roots of trees formed rotting gates, held still, and narrowed her eyes into the horizon, on a dark shape in the fog. Thought about the day the girl came. About the storm.

About the ship.

And the humidity cooled.

She, a wild new survivor, had seen every monster in this swamp. _Lived_ with 'em. _Every_.

Except their sleeping mother.


	2. Cuckoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 2nd: "Celebration".

Lucas didn't know what he'd expected. He didn't know what he'd _wanted_.

And yet he was _still_ disappointed.

_Yaaaaaaaaay._

He rounded the napping girl in _his_ goddamn bed, takin' steps like a stork. Cocked his head.

 _She'd_ sure had a good time. Asked for a new blanket and bear. Mom and Dad'd taken her to town. They'd come back beaming, little bitch clinging to _his_ fucking mother's dress 'round the stupid fucking toys and laaaaaughing. Mom'd looked at Jack, gasped, taken a couple takes, muttered "we forgot..." Mutter. "...for Lucas..."

...He flipped Evie the bird. Turned around.

_Happy FUCKING 23rd._


	3. Jesus Wept

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 3rd: "Silence".

Zoe had a moment, when the radio broke. When she lost the last of Daddy's favorite vinyls - guessed she had little chance to use the record player, anyway.

It was a bitter, tart, spurred thought both times. _Livin' without family, friends, university, odd jobs, no nothing, now. Not even music._

_Welcome to living to survive._

Then one night, she stood out in the marsh like the shadow of a doe, still and content among fireflies, rustling reeds, chirping crickets. Tranquil. Dreamlike. Belonging again.

And _started_ on a heavy metal chord rattling the windows of the looming barn across the yard.


	4. Captain Antichrist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 4th: "Mirror".

Lucas only trusted the complimentary intent of one thing Jack had ever told him ("you're a genius" was just fact): "You've got your mother's eyes".

Why else would the old man say it? It had nothing to do with him.

He'd puzzled why it was important before. Stared in the mirror one younger day, gawking to look for Mama's face behind his, like Bloody Mary. Large eyes, snowy blue. Long features. Sharp jaw, cheekbones, nose. He found it.

Then it clicked.

And into the glass --

...burned a _**grin.**_

Nahhhhh, it was important 'cause he _saw no Jack._

 _No man's_ boy.


	5. American Gothic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 5th: "Fantasy".

Jack was a tired old man. He dreamed simple.

Just of a quiet nest. Loving wife, gracious daughter, honorable son.

He was a lucky man, too. Marguerite was a born domestic mama. Zoe was a good girl and a wild deer at once - gentle, sweet, and strong. And what folks said about Lucas didn't matter - boy testified when Oliver died, like he should. "Ditched him playin' in the bayou. I didn't go back for him."

Just as he'd told Jack as the gator thrashed a weeks-dead body, cracking bones.

...Jack had everything a man could want.

He _knew_ he did.


	6. Closes Her Eyes, Counts To Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 6th: "Thunder".

Zoe liked stormy weather, once. Blackouts, too.

They'd meant dinner by candlelight, Mama's smiles during bayou country fairy stories and ghost tales, intimate looks through low light around the table. Her and Lucas playing like ferrets, when they were little, under and out of hiding spots, mock-yelping at lightning flashes and thundercrashes.

Bed feeling warmer, body wrapped in blankets of down, house wrapped in water and dark and a wall of sound.

She understood, now. Thunderstorms were for daring children's play.

Eveline the inheritor.

When moons rose into the rainy season, Zoe walked quieter, listening for what new game'd begun.


	7. Re-Manifestation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 7th: "Ghost".

"Who are you?" asked the man on the phone.

They all did.

The first time, she'd hesitated. Twitching a smirk on a joke that wasn't - _you heard the rumors out in town? The story of Jack and Marguerite Baker, and their little black and white lambs?_

_I'm the ghost of Zoe Baker. Trapped here by dark forces that've overtaken this house._

_But I'm the friendly one hauntin' this place._

_Maybe you can break the curse._

"My name's Zoe," she still said, plain.

Was some child in her that liked the thought - still Daddy's Little Girl.

Another thing to let go.


	8. Truce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 8th: "Quarter".

Lucas was the favorite, little Zoe'd thought, with a sad-anxious frown, peeking out from the doorway at him and Mommy and Daddy talking serious at the dining table.

It was because he was smarter, he'd told her, before scoffing: "You think Mom and Dad like _**me?!**_

"They _wish_ I didn't have all the brains!"

She allowed herself some cold comfort in consciously self-righteous spite now, smiling, inserting a quarter into a slot from a mini-gumball machine stolen from his parts stash. Her old canary cage's door turned open.

They'd been equal all along, in many ways.

'Cept only she learned.


	9. Prodigal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 9th: "History".

_Why ain't you thinking about your fuuuuutuuuuuure, Lucaaaaaaas?_

_You gotta start applying yourself, Lucaaaaaaaaaaas...!_

...Puh.

Folks sure cared a lot about shit like the future, considering it weren't real. _"You're gonna make history someday with that brain of yours, Lucaaaaaaaas,"_ his ass. History didn't even get to belong to the person who made it.

Nothing did.

...Nnnnahhhh, he just wanted out.

The _now_ was the one thing always too close to you for someone else to grab away 'fore you could take it and run.

And sat with it and other toys in the attic - locked in a magpie's nest.


	10. Minigame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 10th: "Zero".

"Hit me."

The card slides into line. Clancy flips it. + 4, + 6, +8. 18.

His mind drops cold. His eyes flick between his side of the table and the other. Count, count, count.

\+ 5 + 11. 18 versus 16. Remainder: 1, 2, 3 vs. 7, 9, 10. Their odds are about equal.

The Molded snarls. And a card slides onto the table, face up. A shield.

The single guillotine over its pinned hand flips back to retract.

Clancy glances at his hand, shoulders trembling. Three raised. Pinky, ring, middle.

Equal hands versus inequal hands.

He swallows. Holds his breath.

Lucas hits.


	11. The Whipping Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 11th: "Sanction".

Did Zoe realize why she was being kept?

She never wanted to play. She kept trying to run away from home. She stole food from the fridge after skipping dinner and making Grandma upset. She was a _bad_ big kid.

A _bad_ big sister.

It was fun to see her pay - run from Evie's friends, get smacked by Grandpa. To giggle " _don't make me kill you!_ " in her ear and stop her dead frozen down the hall. Evie _could!_ Had Zoe forgotten that, too?

Silly big girl. Evie smirked.

Every toy set needs a "bad guy".

Eveline's family _needed_ Zoe.


	12. I'm Gonna Be...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 12th: "Courage".

"There you go, boy," Uncle Joe was yelling. He squeezed Lucas's shoulder, whapped him on the back. "You are _one gutsy young man!_ " Chuckled. "Takin' after me...!"

Lucas's eyes switched blank into their corners. "I weren't even scared," he said. Muttered, in a turning, eight-year-old croak, "...Just wanted to see up closer, was all."

He held up the big turtle with both hands as he turned. _Lion King_ -like. It snapped and Uncle jumped back and _whoa!_ -ed and snickered as he re-gathered and hunkered down his weight to look it eye-to-eye.

Lucas's head tilted.

Was he better than Uncle, too...?


	13. Counting Chickens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 13th: "Hope".

"Know what you'll do when you get out of here?"

...Nobody ever asked her that. _Sometimes_ she wished they did. _Sometimes_.

Then she realized she never asked _them_ that. Then she remembered why. Then she realized that she didn't even goddamn know how she _would_ answer that question. Besides "no. I don't".

She considered asking Ethan, one stuck moment. Promptly imagined him sayin' something like -- "first, let's worry _about getting out of here_ ".

And she smiled like he _had_ said it. Heard herself laugh the thought clear a' her lungs - say "that sounds like a plan".

All in good time.


	14. Something Rotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 14th: "Sorrow".

They just don't... prepare you for this. _(Who's_ _**they?**_ _)_

You know they're out there. There're those who turn out off everywhere, in every city and town. Bad seeds, and children who just don't feel like everybody else. But they can't be yours - comin' from your own sweet heart and your strong and noble and loving husband's.

Marguerite's heart fluttered like a glass butterfly as she watched tiny, tiny Lucas go at his puzzle again. Timing himself. 'Bout halfway done already.

Her baby was _well_ , and yet here she was - on the edge of grieving for every future he mightn't have.


	15. Master of Acrimony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 15th: "Audience".

" _LADIEEEEEEES AND GENTLE --_ **HUAAAAGHCK** _\-- HCKHHRR-HRRGH..._ "

The microphone _SQUEEEEAAAAALED_. Lucas doubled over - behind his hand, twisted a face like he wasn't friggin' well sure whether to wince or cackle. What a damn _sound...!_

He rasped - into a swollen half-yawn.

Gulped.

"... -- Aaaaah, technical difficulties, folks...! Parrrdon! Pardon..."

The mannequins lining the walls stared. Mutely.

He stood - unclipped the mic, cleared his throat. "Now - ladies and gentlemen...!" _Squeeeeaaaaal._ "Time for another round _oooooooof...!_ "

Heron-like, rocking, he crossed over to the gate.

Eyes pinched narrow over a crescent smile.

The stranger's burned.

"Dulvey Roulette," he said.

The fuses of ten small cannons popped lit.


	16. Tomboy Sawyer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 16th: "Water".

Jack was takin' what he could get, at the start. Lucas didn't enjoy it. Zoe did.  
  
The two of 'em fishing on the dock, legs dangling over gray-green water and sinkers bobbing.  
  
He felt a little like it was a pathetic secret at times. Refuge for weakness.  
  
Zoe, however, liked secrets.  
  
In the quiet, sometimes she looked on up to him with those big eyes. The expectant way.  
  
Heh...  
  
...Was hard not to rumble a small laugh. Ruffle her hair.  
  
Before they looked back over the water, smiling in settlement, as if they'd just exchanged some small bit of knowledge.


	17. Arrested Development

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 17th: "Graduate".

"I'm takin' a year off," said Lucas. She asked again, and he repeated, rising-rough, "I'm takin' a year _OFF -- !_ "

He _slapped_ the arm of the chair. It _**squeaked**_ \-- rocked. He looked up at her bug-eyed.

A tension in his brow as if she'd _insulted_ him.

Zoe's jaw dropped - she covered the phone receiver. Mouthed twice. "Ah -- " Tossed her head. "...I-I was just tellin' Marian," she said. "...Her brother just graduated, too... Know Forrest? He's goin' to --"

"Your friends ain't my friends," he said, sneering. Voice like a sawdusty crow. "Why you care, anyway?

"You a grown-up, all of a sudden?"


	18. What Big Teeth You Have

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 18th: "Dust".

First time she'd ever had to _scratch_ a photograph clean, Zoe thought with narrowed eyes, as she tilted her head to contemplate the eye contact with herself she'd achieved under a gray-dusted nail.

She set the frame onto the stand, face-down. Looked up and over toward the sound of clinking in the kitchen.

"Mama?" she called. "You been feelin' ill?"

No reply.

"These knick-knacks're gettin' awful dusty." She laughed soft, fluttery. "Rare you wait more than a week to get to the dustin'..."

And in a _**whunk**_ , a cleaver fell.

Frozen, Zoe heard dust around her stirring.

Clocks a-tick, ticking...


	19. The Feral Diaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 19th: "Old".

07/19

Zoe told me I should "lighten up" today! ZOE! Isn't that rich, because I think that's real rich coming from the girl who figured being a good little Daddy's Fucking Princess was better than being pals and having a good time what, 10 years ago??

Fuck You, Zoe!! You and EVERYBODY ELSE act like """maturity""" is learning how to be a good little bitch and lie down and take shit! Blah blah controlling your feelings (not my fault you're an asshole!) and pretending you feel stuff you don't, """play nice""", well guess what?

LUCAS... AIN'T... ABOUT THAT LIFE!!!!!!!!!


	20. Priorities, Priorities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 20th: "Discovery".

Mama'd been first to learn. Might've been the first time Lucas had ever been scared.

She'd come in without knocking again. He'd looked at her blank-eyed, little hands still taking apart an old remote. She'd asked him about the smell. I caught me a bird, he'd said. Was waitin' for it to turn into bones.

He'd felt some cold burn rise in his veins even then. Up and up.

It'd burst into a _flood_ when Mama first opened the attic. Saturated by the time she doubled and whimpered into her hand.

Don't lemme get in trouble, he'd said. Tiny.

Please...?


	21. The Nest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 21st: "Home".

They'd said her accent was already fading after just a season up north. With laughs and friendly shoves, of course.

Daddy'd patted her back, chortling at her not to get too _city girl_ on them, before Mama'd pulled her in and lilted that she must've missed real, home Cajun suppers. (She had.) Lucas'd gone outta his way to talk to her, even - she done any partying up at uni? Scoped the local tech and counterculture scenes?

Come dinnertime, she'd smiled wistfully in her old seat, glancing between 'em in familiar places. Lull of rich twanging accents. Old voices, bickers, jokes...


	22. Some People Just Aren't the Type...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 22nd: "Universe".

"You keep talkin' like that," Zoe said. The smallest mouth-quirk and head-toss, throat dry. She lifted her cigarette - took a long drag, back against the barn and eyes to the bayou.

She exhaled. Smoke curled in the air between her and Lucas. He looked half-sideways at her, chin restin' on arms folded atop his knees, seated beside her. They were both slightly drunk.

"In -- some other universe... bet you're a bum." Leaned to face him as she passed 'im smirk and stoge.

He hiccuped a laugh, tossin' his head up.

"...Better than bein' in one place all your life, right...?!"


	23. Cupid's D.I.Y.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 23rd: "Heart".

You know -- he thought this one mighta been warming up to him! 'Cause I mean -- how could she not? He'd made a _big gesture!_

Too bad. Yet -- not that bad. Lucas's eyes were dark but smile _genuine_ as he reversed away from the chair in which the girl was slumped, bloody all down the front.

He whipped his head up! Asymmetrical smirk.

And he threaded her severed heart onto the spit till it bumped right against his, where it still beat and quivered and dripped, attached to his chest by glossy red ribbons.

"Ahhhhh, you shouldn't haaaaaave," he sizzled out.


	24. Shut Up, Fake Einstein

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 24th: "Theory".

"Crazy". Pff.

...Lucas's thought was that _nobody_ knew what "crazy" meant.

He'd actually had a mind to ask once. "Crazy," Mama'd said, "means someone don't think like everybody else."

She'd then said, nonsensically, "You're not crazy."

It _was_ nonsensical. Right outta the gate, wasn't it? See, he was _smarter_ than everybody else. If he _did_ think like everybody else, why weren't _they_ making inventions? Noticing dumb stuff like how "shouldn't" ain't _"can't"_ \- just "makes people mad"?

(Why wasn't stuff like that obvious to _everybody?_ )

Maybe he _was_ "crazy". He didn't care.

"Crazy" weren't _logical_ enough for him to work with.


	25. Accomplice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 25th: "Absolution".

"It weren't your fault," Mama'd said often, back in days Lucas could muster a big fake sob into her chest without laughing.

He was too outspoken for teachers, she'd say. Were nasty rumors' fault town moms never invited him to their boys' birthday parties. She'd even fought Jack for him. _(Haha! Mama loves me_ best! _)_

"I love you, baby," she'd tell 'im - kiss on the forehead.

He'd grin relishing victory.

"Love you, too, Mamma!"

He didn't know if he did. That weren't just "anymore", neither. He _loved_ loud music, fire, internet. Winning, too.

But he'd certainly liked her well enough.


	26. Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 26th: "Zealous".

"Get out," said Little Brother. "I don't recall invitin' you over."

And Joe turned down on 'im a muted wild-dog grin.

_You smackin' that boy around ain't no way to make him obey. Y'ever tried tamin' a gator?_

_Lemme guess - you just want somebody to pick on. And you ain't fuckin' with anyone_ your own _size!_

Jack glowered. Joe huffed - nose twitched.

_Zoe ain't some little princess, either - she's free-spirited like the boy._

"They're my family, too, brother," Joe said out loud. Still grinning. Knowingly daaaaamn _self-satisfied_. Tossed his head. " -- And you ain't keepin' me outta their lives."

_Try it._


	27. Tribute to the Lost Baker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 27th: "Rusty".

"Her name's _Diane_ , boy," said Daddy. Again.

Lucas narrowed his eyes up at the ol' man. Again. Face crap-smellingly scrunched.

Zoe knew he'd only half heard the tone. She quirked a smile behind her hand, lungs shuddering a near-silent chuckle.

As Lucas scooted up to the pup further in two crouched tiptoein' steps, warpin' that sneer like a heated iron into an all-teeth grin. Beckoning with twitching fingertips. "Come oooon...!" his voice flitted, the most degreased Zoe'd heard it in a while. " -- Come to papa, Rusty...!"

The dog continued napping.

Pity.

It was the best name he'd ever given anything.


	28. Before They Hatch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 28th: "Style".

"Who needs an explanation...?" Zoe's voice curls into the phone. It lilts a bit more - hopping along the crests of curls of smoke. "...Aren't you a city man? A scar like that on your wrist, tell 'em it's a new body mod...!" She tugs a smirk - flicks white ash from her stoge onto the trailer floor.

Her smile drops loose a second, before hands catch a crank in her chest - turn it back up.

Warm.

"...Why you think I started smoking?"

Ethan coughs one dry, dry scoff of a laugh.

"...You're telling me you're the 'cool' type?"

"Mmmmm, maybe someday..."


	29. The [ANGEL] Was A [DEVIL], Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 29th: "Light".

_Lucas._

_Luuuu-cas Lucas Lucas._

_Luuuu-cas!_

Hee...!

Y'know? He'd -- ... _haaaaaated_ the name when he'd first got old enough to really understand what a name even was, in concept. Why's _somebody else_ get to name you? _You're_ you! Why weren't he called _this_ name, or _this_ name? _Jyyyeesh_ , did he call himself -- _so many things_ in private, for 'bout... two months!

Then he got old enough to further understand what a name was. What it meant, besides "you".

"Light".

Well, he was _bright_ , weren't he? 'N he knew how to work lights!

He _loved_ it.

_No one_ brought the light like him!


	30. Loyal People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 30th: "Trust".

"Thank you, Ethan."

It binds in Zoe's throat - a thin stream crystallizing, cracking. Freezing into shining planes and needles.

"It's like you said, right?" he says. Over the phone, it's dry. Briskly easy. Just like always. "We were gonna get out of there together."

She thinks she can detect a hint more inflection.

Something in her chest tickles - as if a bone that isn't a bone has been struck. Something behind her face does, too - she sniffs as she smiles.

"...You're a real friend," she half-whispers, half-lilts.

She thinks it's a joke. She barely knows him.

But he's real _something_.


	31. Outlive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July 31st: "Final".

"Look at you... That gray hair."

Zoe, objectively, can't. Keeps her head down, hands laced in front of her. Feeling rather like a little girl, oddly.

Uncle Joe speaks on. Slow, and rough, and rounded. "Got mighty thin, too." Breath. "...Like your brother." He adds a hoarse, pebbly little chuckle.

Joe liked Lucas.

She licks her lips. Head lowering, as he cracks out a " _hhho -- ...!_

"...You're lookin' like an old woman, Zoe."

He's attempting to cheer her up, as a man to whom old age ain't but a joke.

...She smiles. So's not to be unappreciative.

"Funny."

Means it, though.


End file.
